17 dead as train hits truck blocking tracks in Tunisia

17 people have been killed along with 70 injured after a train in Tunisia
collided with a crossing truck and derailed

By Robert Midgley, and AP

9:24PM BST 16 Jun 2015

A Tunisian passenger train smashed into a semi-trailer truck southwest of the capital Tunis early on Tuesday morning. 17 people were killed and injuring a further 70, according to authorities.

The impact of the truck derailed the first two carriages of the train ejecting a large number of passengers, according to emergency service officials.

At least twenty ambulances were mobilised to evacuate the dead and wounded to the three closest hospitals while the victims were extracted from the wreckage.

Train carriages derailed from colliding with oncomming truck

An interior ministry spokesman said the truck was racing to get across the tracks when it was hit by the speeding train at 6:30am, local time, outside the town of El Fahs, 60 kilometres southwest of the capital, Tunis.

The driver saw the oncomming collision and jumped out before the locomotive collided and ultimately destroyed.